Movie Reviews

by Karin Leonard & Daniel Robin

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V for Vendetta

With Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt Note: graphic, bloody violence

Entertainment: 3.5 Message: 4

This frightening Orwellian vision of a not-too-distant totalitarian future features an uncomfortably familiar war against so-called terrorists, while the government is the true villain. Full of paradoxes, this film is based on a 1982 graphic novel, written for screen and co-produced by Brothers Wachowski (Matrix, which was also about rebels going against “the system”). Disturbing and powerfully poignant if you get swept up in the drama; but easily dismissed if you get distracted by the over-the-top comic book visuals and hard-boiled, literary messages. Otherwise, the story is a not-too-thinly veiled commentary on our times (part parable, part fantasy, and perhaps even a cautionary tale) and thankfully left wide open to interpretation. We found this UK/German co-production suspenseful and mesmerizing (2 hrs 12 min).

The Village

With Judy Greer, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody

Entertainment: 3 Message: 3.5

More mysterious than terrifying – and if you go expecting a horror film you will be disappointed -- director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) delivers a powerful psychological fable with mytho-poetic flair. Villagers pull in their borders and withdraw from the rest of society due to a perceived threat, a danger “out there.” The entire film serves as a brilliant metaphor, illuminating that control through isolation (physical or psychological) is not really control at all – it amounts to being controlled, not freedom (2 hrs).